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Fascinating laundry, Part II
May 13, 2005
To follow up with one of my most popular and accessed posts, I present today's addition: How to fold a fitted sheet.
Blogging is light - I've been busy folding shirts and sheets!
Mark Fuhrman investigates
May 9, 2005
Interesting development.... Mark Fuhrman is investigating the Terri Schiavo case.
Amazing Grace DVD
May 9, 2005
One of my favorite blogs is Challis.com. This month Tim is sponsoring a giveaway for 2 DVD's. He's offered Amazing Grace the History and Theology of Calvinism before - but I didn't win. So I bought it! It is a terrific series. Our Women's Bible study has been viewing it along with our spouses. I highly recommend it. If you'd like to enter the drawing click here.
Voice of the Shepherd
May 9, 2005
I'm playing with Flickr today and came across this great picture. It reminded me of John 10:4
"When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."
Terri's Final Hours
May 9, 2005
Terri's final hours were not peaceful. Terri was not unresponsive. Terri laughed, smiled and kissed. Fr. Frank Pavone was with Teri in her final hours and writes a compelling letter about those last few hours. Read it - and let's not forget. Terri's Final Hours: An Eyewitness Account - by Fr. Frank Pavone:
National Day of Prayer
May 5, 2005
National Day of Prayer - Pray for our soldiers and the suffering:
New SAT trains bloggers and politicians
May 5, 2005
SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors: Dr. Les Perelman a director of undergraduate writing at MIT did his doctoral work on testing and develops writing assessments for entering M.I.T. freshman. He's quoted in the NYT's as saying,
It appeared to me that regardless of what a student wrote, the longer the essay, the higher the score.
Sounds like a old-time filibuster to me. He went on to say,
I have never found a quantifiable predictor in 25 years of grading that was anywhere near as strong as this one," he said. If you just graded them based on length without ever reading them, you'd be right over 90 percent of the time....r. Perelman contacted the College Board and was surprised to learn that on the new SAT essay, students are not penalized for incorrect facts. The official guide for scorers explains: "Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state 'The American Revolution began in 1842' or ' "Anna Karenina," a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.' " (Actually, that's 1775; a novel by the Russian Leo Tolstoy; and poor Anna hurls herself under a train.) No matter. "You are scoring the writing, and not the correctness of facts."
How to prepare for such an essay? "I would advise writing as long as possible," said Dr. Perelman, "and include lots of facts, even if they're made up." This, of course, is not what he teaches his M.I.T. students. "It's exactly what we don't want to teach our kids," he said.
Could the new SAT be a training ground for today's politicians and bloggers???
Leather Bible and Jihad
May 4, 2005
As if there were any doubt, read John McCandlish Phillips piece When Columnists Cry 'Jihad': in the Washington Post.
I have been looking at myself, and millions of my brethren, fellow evangelicals along with traditional Catholics, in a ghastly arcade mirror lately -- courtesy of this newspaper and the New York Times. Readers have been assured, among other dreadful things, that we are living in "a theocracy" and that this theocratic federal state has reached the dire level of -- hold your breath -- a "jihad."
Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
Is the Pope Italian?
May 4, 2005
No, this is not another Pope post. Actually it is a post about political correctness. Last week Pope Benedict XVI said, "I'm already very Italian." This was in response to his being late for an audience with a group of fellow Germans.
In America some would take the Pope's comment as an ethnic insult. At the same time, I find I'm becoming overly politically correct to avoid the chance of insult.
Yesterday I found myself trying to describe a police arrest I witnessed without mentioning that it was a black man. Why? Then at sign language class I was describing an Asian friend without saying she was Asian (black hair, dark skinned, dark eyes etc.) Why? And of course, I never chronicle my husband's love of wine as a part of his being Italian!
It's tough to keep my politically correct speech relevant. I'm relearning the word Indian for Native American (formerly Indian) and Deaf for Hearing Impaired (formerly Deaf). Too many changes to keep up with. I need to learn to stop worrying about my word choice and just concentrate on what I'm saying.
